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mortality rate softshell


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Softshell Turtle Forum ]

Posted by William Jahnkow on December 13, 2001 at 01:36:38:

I have had problems with these smooth softshells as well, I have found that baby softshells will over eat to the point of killing themselves, I had four in one tank years ago and put the food in , some just ate most of the food and the next morning they where dead, the other two where ok ,not knowing at the time what happened I feed the other two ,like most books suggested , until they show no more interest in eating , well I was up late that night and I saw them swimming around and one of them just stopped swimming and dropped to the bottom , I pulled it out and it was dead ,half hour later same thing with the other,
I know this sounds odd , but a year ago a pet store was selling these and florida softies I was in the store and two people where at the counter with each a softie in a plstic bag dead, I asked them what they feed them and they said they had them in with there tropical fish and they were eating brine shrimp and fish food like mad ,the next day they where dead.
I bought one of the florida softshells and only feed small amounts of food ,Istopped even though it was eager for more , I got one just to see if they were just sick turtles or had other problems , well I still have mine and now it's 2 inchs long and doing very well.
I had four smooth softshells together ,all about 5 to6 inches long , it seems when you feed more than one in the same tank they try to gobble the food up as fast as they can, to the point that they can't swallow any more and end up with it in there throats and then spit it out, when feed one at a time they don't do this .they don't over eat and die like the babies .
This is just my own personal experience, but I would use caution when feeding them'like for a baby maybe just three reptomin food sticks broken up a day and thats it , as they grow adjust the amount.I have many other types of water turtles and they never try to over eat, or go into such a feeding frenzy.


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